Lewis Barrett Welch Jr. (August 16, 1926 – May 1971?) was an

American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...

associated with the

Beat generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

literary movement. Welch published and performed widely during the 1960s. He taught a poetry workshop as part of the University of California Extension in San Francisco, from 1965 to 1970. He is believed to have committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

, after leaving a note on May 23, 1971. His body was never found.

Early life

Welch was born in

Phoenix, Arizona Phoenix ( ; nv, Hoozdo; es, Fénix or , yuf-x-wal, Banyà:nyuwá) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona, with 1 ...

, and moved with his mother and sister to

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in 1929. The family often moved, and he graduated from

Palo Alto High School Palo Alto Senior High School, commonly referred to locally as "Paly", is a comprehensive public high school in Palo Alto, California. Operated by the Palo Alto Unified School District, the school is one of two schools in the district, the other b ...

. He enlisted in the

Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

in 1944 but never saw active service. He worked for a period before attending Stockton Junior College, where he developed an interest in the works of

Gertrude Stein Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, California, Stein moved to Paris ...

. In 1948, Welch moved to

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, to attend

Reed College Reed College is a private liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1908, Reed is a residential college with a campus in the Eastmoreland neighborhood, with Tudor-Gothic style architecture, and a forested canyon nature preserve at ...

. There he roomed with fellow poet

Gary Snyder Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. His early poetry has been associated with the Beat Generation and the San Francisco Renaissance and he has been described as the "poet laureate of ...

and also befriended

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

. Welch decided to become a writer after reading

's long story " Melanctha."

Aram Saroyan Aram Saroyan (born September 25, 1943) is an American poet, novelist, biographer, memoirist and playwright, who is especially known for his minimalist poetry, famous examples of which include the one-word poem "lighght" and a one-letter poem comp ...

, ''Genesis Angels: The Saga of Lew Welch and the Beat Generation'', William Morrow and Company, 1979 Welch wrote his thesis on Stein and published poems in student magazines.

William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism. In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...

visited the college and met the three poets. He admired Welch's early poems and tried to get his Stein thesis published.

New York and Chicago

After college, Welch moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he worked writing copy in the advertising industry. Welch was said to have come up with the advertising slogan," Raid Kills Bugs Dead," but some have questioned this claim. During this time, Welch started to display emotional and mental problems and went to

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

to take a course of

therapy A therapy or medical treatment (often abbreviated tx, Tx, or Tx) is the attempted remediation of a health problem, usually following a medical diagnosis. As a rule, each therapy has indications and contraindications. There are many different ...

. He then went to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

, where he studied

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and English. In

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, he joined the advertising department of

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

Later life and work

Wanting to get back to poetry, Welch applied for a transfer to Montgomery Ward's

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

headquarters. After the return to California, he started to get involved in the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

literary scene. He soon gave up advertising and earned a living driving a cab while devoting more time to writing. He became an active participant in Beat culture, living at various times with Snyder and

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Lawrence Monsanto Ferlinghetti (March 24, 1919 – February 22, 2021) was an American poet, painter, social activist, and co-founder of City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. The author of poetry, translations, fiction, theatre, art criticism, an ...

. In 1960, poet

Lenore Kandel Lenore Kandel (January 14, 1932 in New York City – October 18, 2009 in San Francisco, California) was an American poet, affiliated with the Beat Generation and Hippie counterculture. Biography Her first works of poetry were the chapbooks '' ...

met Welch and Snyder, who introduced her to many people in the Beat movement.

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

based his character Dave Wain in his novel ''

Big Sur Big Sur () is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of California between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur ha ...

'' (1962) on Welch. In 1968, Welch signed the "

Writers and Editors War Tax Protest Tax resistance, the practice of refusing to pay taxes that are considered unjust, has probably existed ever since rulers began imposing taxes on their subjects. It has been suggested that tax resistance played a significant role in the collapse of ...

" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the Vietnam War."Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" January 30, 1968 ''New York Post''

Personal life

Welch had a common-law relationship with

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

Maria Magdalena Cregg. He acted as the stepfather to her son Hugh Anthony Cregg III, better known by his stage-name

Huey Lewis Hugh Anthony Cregg III (born July 5, 1950), known professionally as Huey Lewis, is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band, Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many o ...

Death

On May 23, 1971, Welch walked out of poet

's house in the mountains of California, leaving behind a suicide note. He had with him a stainless steel Smith & Wesson .22 caliber revolver. His body was never found.

Bibliography

Note: Before committing suicide in 1971, Lew Welch left a note naming

Donald Allen Donald Merriam Allen (Iowa, 1912 – San Francisco, August 29, 2004) was an American editor, publisher and translator of American literature. He is best known for his project ''The New American Poetry 1945-1960'' (1960), one of the anthologie ...

his literary executor. Donald Allen published much of Welch's work posthumously via Grey Fox Press. *''Trip Trap: Haiku on the Road'' (1973) () Jack Kerouac, Albert Saijo, and Lew Welch *''How I Work as a Poet'' (1973) () *''Selected Poems'', with a preface by Gary Snyder (1976) () *''On Bread and Poetry: A Panel Discussion Between Gary Snyder, Lew Welch, and Philip Whalen'' (1977) () *''I, Leo: An Unfinished Novel'' (1977) () *''Ring of Bone: Collected Poems'' (1979) () *''I Remain – The Letters of Lew Welch & the Correspondence of His Friends (Volume 1: 1949–1960)'' (1980) () *''I Remain – The Letters of Lew Welch & the Correspondence of His Friends (Volume 2: 1960–1971)'' (1980) () *''How I Read Gertrude Stein'' (1995, originally written late-1940s) () *''Ring of Bone: Collected Poems (New & Expanded Edition)'' (2012) ()

Notes

References

*Lew Welch: ''Ring of Bone: Collected Poems 1950–1970'' has a preface by the poet and a useful chronology, not to mention 200+ pages of poetry. *Charters, Ann (ed.). ''The Portable Beat Reader''. Penguin Books. New York. 1992. (hc); (pbk)

External links

*
Lew Welch Papers
MSS 13
Special Collections & Archives
UC San Diego Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Welch, Lew 1926 births 1971 suicides 20th-century American poets American tax resisters Beat Generation writers Reed College alumni Suicides in California United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area Writers from Phoenix, Arizona Poets from Arizona Activists from California American Book Award winners Palo Alto High School alumni